With high school prom season nearly here, the time was right for local high schools to stress to students the importance of staying sober and safe on their big night.

The East Bridgewater High junior prom is Friday.

So the school invited Corey Scanlon, 29, formerly of Halifax, to speak to the community about his own experience with drunken driving.

And a police officer talked about parent responsibility when teens are drinking.

Scanlon, in a recent talk to about 15 families and students in town, remembered the night in November 2002 when he and his friends Brandon, PJ and Mike left a Rhode Island bar.

The next he can recall about that night of underage drinking was waking up injured in a hospital and being told PJ and Mike had died in a car accident where Scanlon was the driver.

Scanlon spent two years in jail, does not know if he will ever get his driver’s license back, and must daily depend on others to get to work or attend to personal errands, such as getting a haircut.

“I knew the consequences,” he said. “But we thought we were four good kids, that wasn’t going to happen to us. Why would it?”

Scanlon said he had a great upbringing playing all kinds of sports, a mom who left her career to work in a school cafeteria so she could be home in the afternoons with her children and parents who trusted him.

He encouraged parents and kids to talk to each other, and for kids to call home for a ride if they are in an uncomfortable situation.

“The main thing with me was communication with my parents because I was scared of the consequences of what they would do,” Scanlon said.

School resource officer Mark Harvey told parents that if they serve alcohol to underage kids anywhere where they are in charge of the dwelling, which includes hotel rooms and tents in their backyards, they could be fined up to $2,000, spend up to a year in prison, or both.

Laurie McKinnon brought her son Joseph, 15, to the talk because he was going to attend the prom. She did not know about the social host laws or what Harvey called problem homes in town where parents are serving kids alcohol.

“It’s frustrating. I can’t imagine a parent allowing that to happen,” McKinnon said. “When you hear a story like (Scanlon’s) it hits home. You try to teach your kids what’s right.”

Joseph said he has heard the information before but never really put it all together as Scanlon did, down to the little details of not bothering with seat belts and impaired reaction times.

Page 2 of 2 - The program was offered as an assembly during the day for high school juniors and seniors. Those buying prom tickets are being asked to sign a pledge to make responsible decisions the night of the prom.